Transcription: Sens. Chris Coans and James Lankford in

The next is the transcription of an interview with the Sens. Chris Coans, Delaware Democrat, and James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, which was broadcast on “Fac The Nation with Margaret Brennan” on September 14, 2025.

Major Garrett: Welcome back to “Fac the Nation”. To see how Congress can help unite political divisions in the country, we turn to a couple of legislators with great experience in that space. Democratic Senator Chris Coans, who joins us from Wilmington, Delaware, Republican Senator James Lankford, who joins us from Oklahoma City. Knights, you have a well -gained reputation, both, to preach the bipartisan, take the rhetorical temperature in Washington and throughout the country to a notch or two. Senator Coans, I want to start with you. After this week’s events, do you feel more difficult than ever to achieve?

Sen. Chris Coans: it is. And, important, thanks, for the opportunity to be with you and with my friend, Senator Lankford. The brutal murder of Charlie Kirk, while in the midst of a debate on a university campus, goes to the heart of what it means to be American, of the importance of the first amendment, of freedom of expression, and someone like Charlie Kirk, who was a known figure at the national level, who dedicated himself to discussing, debate, to his political adversaries, should not have paid with his life for the opportunity to speak. No matter how much can disagree deeply with their political views, the idea that they would kill him in such a grotesque and public way have to bring us all to reflect on how difficult it is putting on, because the Internet is accelerating. It is driving extremism in our country. He is moving away, on the left and right, and leaders such as Senator Lankford, Governor Cox, have the obligation and opportunity to join the leaders of my party to urge people to put aside any thought of political violence and respect us, even while we move our political differences through speech.

Major Garrett: Senator Lankford, do you ever feel as if your appeal to the best angels, a quieter rhetoric, more bipartisanship, is shouting to an internet vacuum?

Sen. James Lankford: it is, because the algorithm pushes people to the most extreme. The algorithm is everything, on social networks, he is always pushing who is the most angry, who is the loud, who says the craziest, that is what is repeated again and again. So, every time there is a convincing dialogue or a problem about something in which people do not disagree, but they are having a civil conversation about it, which pushes aside, towards someone who is angry and focused. This is a somewhat human nature, to be able to say, we do not agree. We find areas where we do not agree, and try to solve them. The best way to solve them is through words, speak it, find an opportunity to do so. But I would tell you that this type of anger is as old as Cain and Abel. To be able to return and say, I am angry with you, so I will try to destroy you, either destroy you online or try to humiliate you, or cancel you or, in this case, try to kill you publicly. It is painful to be able to see that part of humanity, and it is better for us to push better angels.

Major Garrett: Senator Lankford, first you, then Senator Coons. Senator Lankford, are you afraid for your own security at this time?

Sen. LANKFORD: I am, I am attentive to my own security, how about that, for me and for my family? My staff and I have to talk about each public event, but we had to do it for a while. As they will know well, there have been 14,000 threats against the members of Congress only this calendar year. This is not new, but it is still able to increase. As we have seen, Democratic legislators in Minnesota, in their own home, have an invasion of the house, to be killed in their home, since we have seen a governor in Pennsylvania to have their home on fire. It is not only public events, it is also in our private spaces, that we are very aware that there are people who are irrational, who do irrational acts.

Major Garrett: Senator Coons?

Sen. Coons: I agree that for all of us who serve in public life, either leading a non -profit organization or a church, teaching in a school or being a public defender, someone involved in the public debate as Charlie Kirk was, the risk is increasing. And having to worry about the safety of your own family, if you step forward to serve as a judge, if you write editorial World, that we are politicians, but that we are politicians, but we are politicians, but we are to which we are politicians, but we are in their nation, but we are to the one who directs the world that we are who direct the world, but we are in their nation. violence. Then, of course, any person in today’s public life is more concerned about the tragedy in Utah, for the incidents to which Senator Lankford has just referred to, the attempt to kidnap the governor of Michigan, to assault the husband of President Pelosi, the Steve Scalise shooting and the shootings in other members of the Congress. Recent incidents have worsened more and more and I think I know the reason. It is mainly because the Internet is feeding and accelerating those deep inclinations towards violence and seeing others as enemies that James was referring. And there are steps that we can and we must take in Congress to address that.

Major Garrett: The administration this weekend, as I am sure that both are aware, presenting $ 58 billion in security for the members of the Congress, the Judicial Power and the like. Senator Coons, do you think Congress will be willing to accept that?

Sen. COONS: I hope we advance and invest more. I just organized a bipartisan event last week about the protection of state judges, and we had state judicial leaders throughout the country, Delaware and Texas and many other states, talk about heartbreaking and tragic incidents murders of members of the Judiciary. I hope we will invest in ensuring our public life, because incidents such as this tragedy in Utah, such as the murder of Melissa and her husband Mark Hortman in Minnesota, frankly, feed a greater anger in our country, and the ways in which people then take the horrible images of these incidents and propagate them on the Internet, adds fuel to the fire. We can and must approve invoices, as we did. Senator Cruz and Senator Klobuchar worked together to approve, and President Trump promulgated the law, Take It’s law, to eliminate some of the most harmful pornographic pornographic images from the Internet. And we have an invoice right in front of us, the online security law of children that is widely bipartisan, which we must approve to help reduce some of the risks and damage to our families in our country, from the Internet.

Major Garrett: Senator Lankford, I am missing 58 million, not 58 billion, but it is a substantial sum.

Sen. Lankford: Yes, it is a substantial sum. The fun thing was that I was really going to correct you in that, to let him know that it is an ‘m’, not a ‘B’ in that particular, but it is something to be able to reserve and say, what are we doing? It is not, it is the person and his family, but it is also the title. This is the task, because that person represents that state, that part of the nation, that particular task, my wife and I often talk about the fact that I have this senator title for a season. Someone else had it before me, someone else will have it after me. But while I have it, I am an administrator of that task and that responsibility. And so, when we are talking about protecting judges and protecting people, it’s not just their personal safety. It really declares to the nation that we believe that these tasks are difficult, that there must be an intense debate, that we have very different perspectives. Chris Coans and I are very close friends, but we have very different ideas about some things. But we have the ability to represent our individual states instead of ideas, and to be able to speak those two things, and be able to unite things and say, I know areas where we do not agree, where do we agree? How can we solve it? That’s where we are at our best, since Americans are to say that we do not oppress ourselves. We try to find our common land and be able to advance as we can and, but as Chris has mentioned, the online children’s security law is a great legislation to protect our children. We are seeing people radicalize online, on social networks and through the Internet in the United States, by other Americans and for the algorithm that is there. And I would tell you that, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, I was in a school in Oklahoma that now Oklahoma schools have banned all Bell to Bell to Bell in school. You cannot have a cell phone in its place from Bell to Bell on the campus. And the directors and teachers talk about how dramatically different the environment is in the campus at this time because people are looking up, people are interacting. People are talking again. They are not just looking at their phone. They do not feed with all this vitriol all day. And so, change the mood of everything simply looking at the face and saying, let’s see if we can solve this.

Major Garrett: Senator Lankford, I will mention something that develops in the country at this time, and is making it difficult for you and Senator Coans have spoken more difficult, who are the people who have published about Charlie Kirk have jobs and are being fired because what they have published online have been seen by their personnel directors or leaders as inappropriate. At the governmental level or in the private sector, do you feel comfortable causing someone to have fired for an expression about the death of Charlie Kirk?

Sen. Lankford: Yes, it’s about protecting individual businesses. And what people are seeing is this culture of cancellation that still persists, that if you express something that becomes a great recoil of the community, the employer will take a step forward and say: hey, you are about to kill our business based on what you are saying online. Everyone has to understand what they say online online can connect with their business. We have a veterinary clinic in Oklahoma City at this time that one of the veterinarians published something absolutely horrible, and now we are calling the sick just after Charlie Kirk has been murdered that there has now been a great rejection through that veterinary clinic, because people say, that’s fine, this is the person: I want to do business with that person if they have that belief? So this is part of the challenge we have with social networks and jobs. Employers are going to say that they do not damage our business based on the silly things you choose to say, to be able to say online.

Major Garrett: Senator Coons, how about the federal government?

Sen. Coons: Well, the way James put it there, I think, is a good balance between which it is fine to have codes of conduct to tell an employee, should not speak on behalf of this company or this department of the Federal Government, where his role, for example, requires that he be entrusted and not take partisan political positions. One of the challenges of the intersection of the line between social networks and the behavior of one in the name of the Gobi Erno is that today we can see his internal views. But it’s not so new. So, let’s imagine that you are a federal career prosecutor or you are a judge. Historically, there have been clear rules against participating in partisan policy while performing these functions. Internet makes it easier for people to the police and punish those who make statements that are considered extreme or outside the mainstream. Canceling culture is a real challenge for us, to balance freedom of expression with positions of responsibility, and we have to find our path through this together in a way that offers some grace and humility while celebrating freedom of expression that is the basis of our Republic and we urge people to think twice before publishing things that are outrageous online.

Major Garrett: Senator Lankford, the country will look for Congress here in the next two weeks to avoid a government closure. It is also possibly spreading soon to overcome the subsidies of the Law on Low Price Health Care that help people pay insurance. In this climate and with thos and eyes of the nation in Congress, how do you expect it to develop?

Sen. LANKFORD: I hope we can solve the budget problems, which the American people hope to do it too. These are difficult problems. They send us to be able to do difficult things. We should do difficult things about it. We should not, first of all, have a government closure. We have $ 37 billion in debt at this time. We should have difficult conversations about debt and deficit, but they should not be during a government closure. What we are discussing at this time is an extension of seven weeks on the current budget spending, to say that we are not changing anything, but for the next seven weeks, we keep it until we obtain a longer budget agreement and in reality we can reach an agreement. What has been done is a requirement of $ 300 billion, by some of my Democratic colleagues, so that we do not spend $ 300 billion, we will not maintain the open government for the next seven weeks. This is also a subsidy, an insurance subsidy, which was implemented during Covid and just after Covid, so that due to the problems of medical care around Covid, we will extend the additional insurance coverage that is there. Covid and the Covid crisis have passed it now, it is difficult to say that we should spend additional $ 300 billion only to remain open the next seven weeks due to an emergency of Covid at this time. So yes, we will have it, we will have difficult conversations, but let’s have it. Let’s talk. We are going to solve it.

Major Garrett: Senator Coons, you will receive the last word. Respond to Senator Lankford for that.

Sen. Coons: Well, this is an area where Senator Lankford and I do not agree. We are both appropriate. We both want to find a way of working together to maintain the open government, but the project of only republican law that was approved earlier this year, the so -called Big Beautiful Bill, threatens to increase the fees for medical care for millions of Americans and get millions more of medical care. I think there are ways in which we can reduce the damage to the medical care of the Americans through the assignments process. The bill that we both vote in our committee in July would restore many of the deep cuts proposed to the National Health Institutes, for example, a positive step. We have to find a way to solve these problems and reduce or reverse part of the damage that is being done to the medical care of Americans.

Major Garrett: Senator Chris Coans, Democrat of Delaware. Senator James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican. Thanks to both. I apreciate it. And we will return back.